Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Paging All Doctors: Effective Physician Recruiting Strategies and Tactics

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The Association of American Medical Colleges has projected that by 2036 there will be a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians. This shortage will include both primary and specialty care physicians. Despite the looming shortage, hospitals and healthcare systems are increasingly investing in physician recruiting. Three-quarters of healthcare organizations surveyed by independent consulting firm Sullivan, Cotter and Associates said they plan to increase the number of employed physicians in the coming year.

To attract and hire good candidates in a high-demand hiring environment, healthcare organizations need to create an outstanding physician recruiting strategy. In this post, we explore proven tactics healthcare organizations can implement to recruit and retain top physician candidates.

Make the Candidate Experience the Heart of Your Physician Recruiting Process

The physician recruiting process requires tremendous time and effort, great attention to detail and timely ongoing two-way communication between candidates and employers. Because of the time-intensive nature of the process, poorly executed physician recruiting is expensive.

In a candidate-driven talent market—especially so for physicians—it is important for you as an employer to make a good impression on the candidates you are pursuing. To ensure success when recruiting physicians, healthcare organizations need to roll out the red carpet for candidates and provide them with an extraordinary candidate experience.

Communication

Communication is the cornerstone of great candidate experience. To build strong relationships, recruiters should work to understand the physician’s needs and wants. When contacting a candidate, a recruiter should open a dialog about what motivates them and work to identify issues and concerns they may have.

Transparency 

Organizations should also make it easy for candidates to evaluate their organization to shape their views and impressions early and accurately. To help facilitate this, a physician recruiter can leverage innovative recruitment technologies and techniques such as video interviewing and virtual office tours can engage candidates in new ways and help your organization leave a lasting impression.

physician recruiting companies

Interviewing Candidates

The interview is not only an ideal way to further assess a physician’s fitness for a position, but also an important chance to “sell” your job offer.

Wherever possible, relate what you do to the interviewee’s medical background and previous clinical experience. One of the easiest ways to do this is to ask candidates why they want to work for you and use their reply to tailor your response, highlighting the parts of the job that may appeal most to them.

Technology can help with interviewing as well. Automated interview scheduling can save you time and video interviewing can be used to conduct real-time interviews with physicians in different locations or to pre-recorded interviews that can be watched when it is convenient for the physician recruiter.

Be Responsive                         

For physicians, a typical day on the job can be hard. Often, it includes running non-stop for eight to 12 hours, being constantly interrupted, having patients demanding attention and making rapid decisions. This makes the responsiveness of your recruiters and their ability to communicate with them quickly and effectively crucial to the recruitment process.

physician recruiter

A physician recruiter should leverage technology to help them stay organized and respond quickly to candidate inquiries. Recruiters should also make sure that the next steps in the hiring process are outlined and communicated to the candidate well in advance. When done efficiently, responsive physician recruitment can reduce confusion between candidates and recruiters and cut down time-to-hire.

Include the Candidate’s Family

Family concerns play a significant role when considering a new position for many physicians, especially one that may require them to relocate.

When recruiting a candidate, consider whether the location of your organization provides the candidate’s spouse with professional opportunities or the candidate’s children with good schools. All of those items affect a physician’s decision to accept a new job offer.

If the candidate makes a visit to your hospital or clinic, include family members in the experience. Giving family members the opportunity familiarize themselves with your community can favorably influence a candidate’s decision.

Physician Recruitment and Become an Employer of Choice for Physicians

An employer that offers a positive work culture and environment not only attracts great candidates but also increases the chance of retaining them.

physician recruitment

Becoming a healthcare employer of choice means that physician applicants are eager to work for your organization, that other healthcare workers envy your employees, you receive lots of resumes from eager candidates and that your best employees are likely to remain with your organization throughout their careers.

What is a Healthcare Employer of Choice?

Healthcare employers of choice are motivated by the well-being of both employees and patients. An employer of choice clearly differentiates between themselves and competitors in key benefits, such as life insurance, disability, paid time off and retirement, as well as certain physician-specific benefits, such as continuing medical education expenses, licensing and medical malpractice insurance.

Schedule Manageable Workloads

Organizations that want to become an employer of choice should try to make sure that physician workloads are manageable to prevent physician burnout. This can be done by reducing the number of patients they see during a shift to ensure physicians have ample time to sit down with patients and families to discuss treatment and post-discharge care.

Work-life Balance and PTO

For many physicians, work-life balance can seem like more a work-life puzzle. The healthcare field can make trying to fit in time for family and friends, hobbies, or any other activity that occurs outside of work difficult.

It is a daily struggle. For some, the struggle leads to stress, which leads to a lack of motivation. A large part of your physician recruiting and retention strategy should revolve around providing candidates with favorable or flexible scheduling and a healthy amount of PTO time to show that your organization is committed to a healthy work-life balance.

Clearly Communicate Your Benefits Package

In order to appreciate the benefits your organization offers, candidates need to be clear on the options that are available to them. If your organization provides the opportunity to earn bonuses based on performance, a partnership track or retirement benefits, make sure that your recruitment messaging communicates those benefits clearly.

Sometimes employees can be hesitant to use some of the perks provided by an organization. It is essential that your workplace culture encourages your employees to use their benefits.

Next Steps For Physician Recruiters

Every physician views career success differently, and one of the keys to effective physicians recruitment is discovering what motivates them. Some physicians may be fresh out of residency and concerned about paying back student loans while others might be seeking the prestige of a leadership position or teaching opportunities. Find out what success means to your candidates and discuss how you plan on helping them achieve it.

PeopleScout UK Jobs Report Analysis — August 2018

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The Office for National Statistics released its August Labour Market Bulletin which reports on the three months of April, May and June 2018. The bulletin reports 42,000 jobs added in the quarter and a decrease in the unemployment rate by 0.2 per cent from the previous quarter. The report is unchanged from last month in showing that average weekly earnings for employees in Great Britain in nominal terms (that is, not adjusted for price inflation, minus bonuses) increased by 2.7 per cent over the last year.

UK Jobs Report Analysis — August 2018

The Numbers

42,000: The economy added 42,000 jobs over the April-June 2018 period.
4.0%: The unemployment fell 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter.
2.7%: Wages (excluding bonuses) increased 2.7 per cent over the last year.

The Good

UK unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.36 million in three months of April, May and June – the lowest in more than 40 years. The unemployment rate has not been lower since December 1974 through February 1975.  Compared to one year ago, 313,000 more people are working in the UK. For people between 16- and 64-years old, 75.6 per cent are working, up from 75.1 per cent a year earlier. For women between 16-and 64-years old, 71.0 per cent are employed, up from 70.5 per cent a year earlier. The employment rate for men in the same age range, 80.1 per cent are working; the employment rate for men has not been higher since February to April 1991.

The Bad

The lackluster rate of wage increases may create challenges for employers who may see an increasing number of employees look for new jobs as the most direct path to raise their wages in a healthy job market. While the wage increase still outpaces inflation, there is doubt as to whether this will have a significant impact on the overall economy.

As Bloomberg notes:


“There remains precious little sign that wage growth is set to take-off – undermining a key assumption behind the Monetary Policy Committee’s recent decision to raise rates,” said Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce. “The pace at which pay is exceeding price growth remains negligible, and is therefore unlikely to provide much respite to the financially squeezed consumer.”

The Unknown

The ONS figures show the number of European Union nationals working in the UK fell by a record amount. This decrease was the largest annual amount since records began in 1997 and continues a trend seen since the 2016 Brexit vote. This decrease contrasts with a rise in the number of non-EU nationals working in the UK to 1.27 million, which is 74,000 more than a year earlier. Without determining the status of EU nationals working in Britain after a final Brexit settlement, the composition of the UK labour force in both the near and long-term remains uncertain.

PeopleScout Canada Jobs Report Analysis — July 2018

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Canada Jobs Report Analysis — July 2018

Statistics Canada released its July 2018 Labour Force Survey which shows 54,100 jobs added to the Canadian economy. That number impressively exceeded analyst expectations of 17,000. Unemployment fell by 0.2 percentage points to 5.8 per cent, a four-decade low. Wage growth slowed from previous months, and the bulk of the job growth came from part-time jobs.


The Numbers

54,100: The economy added 54,100 jobs in July.
5.8%: The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 per cent.
3.2%: Wages increased 3.2 percent over the last year.

The Good

Strong employment gains were made in major service-producing sectors including educational services; health care and social assistance; and information, culture and recreation. Over a one year period, employment grew by 246,000 (+1.3 per cent). These gains were largely the result of growth in full-time work (+211,000 or +1.4 per cent).
For the core-aged (25 to 54) population, employment increased by 35,000, boosted by gains among women (+30,000). The unemployment rate for women in this age group was down 0.3 percentage points to 4.9 per cent. Over a one year period, employment grew for both women (+72,000 or +1.2 per cent) and men (+41,000 or +0.6 per cent) in the core-aged group.

The Bad

According to the July report, Canada added 82,000 less desirable, part-time positions last month and lost 28,000 full-time jobs. The overall positive impact on the economy is diminished by the smaller income available to Canadian families than if the gains had been made in full-time positions.
The public sector made the biggest contribution to the July increase with 49,600 new jobs, while the private sector added only 5,200 positions. National Bank of Canada chief economist Stefane Marion wrote in a report Friday that the public sector is the “only game in town” so far in 2018. Marion’s research note was titled, “Where are the private sector jobs?”

The Unknown

Canadian analysts noted the mixed messages from July’s report. CTV News cited a research note from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, “In the wacky world of Canada’s monthly employment numbers, July came up with another head-scratcher, with some big headlines but some disappointments in the fine print,” CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld wrote Friday in a research note to clients.
Shenfeld added that there are “lots of reasons to question just how good the data really are here.”
Overall, he said the report contained a “good” set of numbers that will keep markets guessing whether the Bank of Canada will introduce its next interest rate hike in September or October. CIBC predicts the next rate increase will land in October as the central bank continues to proceed cautiously along its rate-hiking path.

How the Skills of the Future Will Impact Enterprise Recruitment Teams

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Technology is disrupting nearly every industry, at a pace that has never been seen before. As we shared in our earlier article on how to create a workforce equipped with the skills of the future, this pace of change means that employers need to take a proactive role in ensuring their workforce is prepared for this change. As in-demand skills shift towards prioritising complex problem solving, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and creativity, workforce leaders need to rethink the way they are acquiring talent.

We’ve explored the pending change of skills in the workplace and its impact on employees, but what does this mean for an in-house recruiting team? As roles are redefined and employers move from traditional job descriptions to skills-based definitions, traditional recruiting teams must learn to adapt.

In this article, we’ll examine the need to change the way jobs are defined and categorized to attract the right talent, how the shifting candidate experience drives continued focus on digital sourcing and recruiting strategies and what these changes mean to in-house recruiting teams.

Changing Skills in the Workplace and the Impact on Recruiting Teams

Jobs are being redefined, skills gaps are widening, which impacts the way recruiting teams must work to find the best candidates. How can internal recruiting teams that have traditionally been aligned to specific business units adapt to meet the needs of workforce 4.0?

  • Some companies are realigning their recruiting teams away from business units to talent segments, where they focus on recruiting for a specific skill set
  • Others are outsourcing select talent segments to RPO providers for additional support and expertise
  • Other employers are moving from job-based recruitment to skills-based recruitment

The shift towards aligning recruiters with specific skills creates a challenge for in-house recruiting teams, which may not have the bandwidth or ability to shift to this model. In-house teams are struggling to keep up with the pace when recruiting for a large variety of roles and skill sets, as the number of jobs being redefined to adapt to new skills increases. Analysis of some in-house client teams show time-to-hire is actually increasing as teams find difficulty with new skills and unique roles to fill.

The digitization of work is also having a major impact on recruiting. It’s difficult for enterprise recruiting teams to keep up with the pace of change in talent acquisition and HR technology. Recruitment teams have access to more technology, which should increase productivity and improve the quality of candidates. But in truth, it can be overwhelming. The HR technology marketplace is valued at more than $14 billion, and new technologies continue to enter the space. Tech & digital skills will become more in-demand amongst recruitment teams.

As employers continue to shift their recruiting processes to keep up with the pace of change, many are turning to outsourced providers, like RPOs, to help with talent segments they’re having trouble with. Partnering with an outsourced firm also brings access to improved talent technology. At PeopleScout, for example, our Affinix™ technology is equipped with AI, machine learning and predictive analytics tools that enable our clients to connect with the best talent faster. We are also continuously evaluating and implementing new tools and features, so our clients are on the cutting-edge of emerging technologies in the marketplace.

Changing Candidate Experience: Ways to Engage with Candidates Online

Employers need to contend with changing candidate expectations in addition to adapting their jobs for the skills of the future. Candidates today want benefits like flexible working hours and virtual work opportunities and have in-demand skills that translate across multiple job categories. And, candidates today have more options than ever. With very strong job growth and low unemployment in many of the world’s leading economies, it is becoming a more candidate-driven job market every day.

How do you find these candidates of the future? Employers need to shift their employment branding strategies to fit the digital era.

Many employers invest large amounts of time and money in their career sites and application process, however most candidates are not finding your career site organically and the application process is often still cumbersome and slow.

While it is critical for candidates to have a good experience when they hit your career site, you need to first find and reach candidates where they are. With the rise of Amazon and other personalized online retail experiences, candidates expect to be treated like a consumer throughout the recruiting process. Recruitment marketing tactics must evolve to meet these requirements, with career sites recommending jobs to candidates the way online retailers recommend products to consumers.

Developing candidate personas can help employers understand exactly who they are targeting. With the candidate in mind, you can develop targeted digital advertising campaigns, post positions on specialty job boards and develop recruitment marketing content to guide candidates through the application process.

It is also critical to closely monitor job rating sites. A poor candidate or employee experience can result in a loss of candidates due to negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. A positive review, on the other hand, can be more meaningful as it is coming straight from an unbiased individual, rather than a company career site.

The right talent acquisition technology tool can also help provide a superior candidate experience.

  • AI-enabled sourcing tools help recruiters find the best candidates faster.
  • A streamlined application process can allow candidates apply with just one click.
  • Personalized recruitment marketing tools like chatbots, SMS messages, email campaign and individualized landing pages provide candidates with the consumer-like experience they have come to expect online.

Why Turn to Outsourced Recruitment?

When enterprise recruiting teams are struggling to implement technology or source the right candidates for positions requiring new skills, some employers bring in a talent partner to focus on specific job functions or skillsets. Talent acquisition leaders are turning to RPO providers for their expertise in hard-to-source talent segments. They’re also looking for a partner who can bring the right technology to improve sourcing and hiring metrics. Learn more about PeopleScout’s RPO solutions.

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — July 2018

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U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — July 2018

The Labor Department released its July jobs report which shows 157,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy, continuing the longest stretch of job growth in the nation’s history. The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 3.9 percent from the previous month.

The Numbers

157,000: The economy added 157,000 jobs in July.
3.9%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent.
2.7%: Wages increased 2.7 percent over the last year.

The Good

The July jobs report shows continuing and steady job growth. Although the increase in jobs last month came in slightly below expectations, figures for payroll increases in May and June were revised substantially higher. The Labor Department reported that the economy added 268,000 jobs in May, up from an initial estimate of 244,000, while the June gain was revised upward to 248,000 from 213,000.
Healthy expansion continued in key sectors of the economy including manufacturing with an annual increase of 327,000 jobs and business and professional services, which grew by 518,000 positions in the last year.

The Bad

The 2.7 percent annual increase in wages reported in July is not significantly different from the wage growth figures over the last two years. While the burden of major salary increases has not yet directly impacted employers, wage stagnation can create challenges in employee retention.  Wages have remained steady while the cost of living has increased for many Americans. For example, it is estimated that home prices are growing twice as fast as income growth.  In the current job market, candidates can be reasonably confident that there will another job waiting for them if they leave their current position. Because research shows that money is the top motivator for employees to quit their jobs, there is significant urgency for employers to have sound recruitment and retention programs in place.

The Unknown

The recently imposed tariffs on U.S. trading partners does not yet appear to have affected the domestic job market. However, threats of an all-out trade war with China may force employers to rein in hiring projections. It has been estimated that trade with China supports as many as 2.6 million U.S. jobs, and a sharp and sudden decrease in trade with China could have a significant negative impact on the U.S. economy.

PeopleScout Australia Jobs Report Analysis – June 2018

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The Australia Bureau of Statistics released its June Labour Force Key Statistics. The increase in employment by 50,900 beat analyst expectations and is the strongest job growth since last November. Unlike May, the increase was led by full-time jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.4 per cent, in part due to the increase in Australians participating in the labour force.

Australia Jobs Report Analysis – June 2018

The Numbers


50,900: The Australian economy added 50,900 jobs in June.
5.4%: The Australian unemployment rate remained at 5.4 per cent.
65.7%: Labour force participation increased to 65.5 per cent.
+6: According to the NAB, the business confidence index fell to +6 index points.

Upside


The net job gain of 50,900 in June continued the trend of monthly job growth. Since June 2017, full-time employment has increased by 158,200 and part-time employment has increased by 180,800.


The increase in the labour force participation rate can be explained by more Australians having confidence in finding a job. In seasonally adjusted terms, the largest increase in employment was in New South Wales (27,300), followed by Queensland (14,800).


The chief economist head of research, Asia-Pacific for ING noted the significance of the increase in full-time jobs in the Financial Times:


“Strong growth in full-time jobs in June helped to shift a labour market that was beginning to be dominated by part-time jobs. Our full-time equivalence measure suggests that labour demand is now picking up strength. Were this to also be reflected in some improved wages growth, it could radically change the outlook for the Reserve Bank of Australia, which most forecasters see on hold all this year, and possibly all of next year too.”

Downside


According to a study released in June by the Reserve Bank of Australia, the unemployment rate for people between 15- and 24-years-old in Australia is seven points higher than the national unemployment rate. Though this rate has historically been higher than for the rest of the population, Australia has an aging workforce. Businesses need to urgently address the challenge of attracting the right talent from the nation’s younger generation.

Unknown


An opinion piece in Bloomberg notes the shifts in Australia’s key relationships which could drastically impact its economy:


“The most significant are two related shifts. The first is changing relations between Australia’s biggest trading partner, China, and the guarantor of Australian security, the U.S. The second is the nature of Australia’s relationship with each of them. China’s growth is slowing, and its economy is driven less by investment and exports and more by domestic consumption. That means a waning appetite for the raw materials Australia sells it even as China’s economy grows bigger overall. And at some point, China may well have its own recession. Nothing lasts forever.”

Total Workforce Solutions in Practice

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Total workforce management is a growing trend, but implementing a total workforce solution is a long-term process. Rather than a one-time implementation, it’s most helpful to think of total talent as an evolution. That evolution will look different for each organization as they work to unite separate parts of a business into one unified strategy.

Learn more about the drivers and benefits of total workforce solutions in our previous blog post. In this post, we’ll cover the major challenges of implementing and maintaining a total talent program – including finding the right technology and total workforce solutions partner.

Total Workforce Solutions Implementation

While there are a host of benefits to a total workforce approach, implementing a holistic program in practice can be complicated. To be successful, there needs to be sponsorship and buy-in from the very top of the organization.

Implementing a total workforce solution starts with understanding your company’s strategic goals and determining how to tailor your talent strategy to achieve those objectives. The way talent wants to work, and the market availability of that talent, will also change your strategy. Understanding the mix of full-time and contingent workers across different departments will allow you to have transparent conversations about how to best find and deploy top talent.

In addition to creating a comprehensive implementation plan, it’s also critical to work with key stakeholders that can help the wider organization understand why a total workforce solution is a positive change and the benefits of evolving to this model. The right messaging, supported by the right data, is critical to success and can help stakeholders work through the difficult conversations that naturally come up as a part of an organizational shift.

The speed of the roll-out will also depend on how your organization is structured. If the structure is already centralized, it will be easier to drive change from the top down. However, for organizations that have decentralized operations, it will be more difficult to get buy-in. The business structure will also impact where in the process an organization needs to start. Some organizations may first need to build a more centralized structure before they can fully build out a total talent solution.

Constant Evolution

Additionally, leaders should keep in mind that the phrase “total workforce evolution” doesn’t just apply to implementation. A well-done total workforce solution is always evolving. The workforce is constantly changing and will continue to change as new generations enter the workforce and more baby boomers and eventually, Gen Xers retire.

Total workforce management is designed to help organizations adjust not just to current change but also adapt to unforeseen changes that will happen decades in the future. That means revaluating how talent wants to work needs to be a constant process. Implementing a total workforce strategy will provide a greater view of a workforce, but leadership needs to recognize that change will continue long past implementation.

The global talent landscape is also changing. Right now, most development of total workforce is happening in the U.S. and Canada, but it could easily spread to other areas around the globe. Organizations will need to keep this in mind as they roll out total workforce and make strategic decisions about how to structure it within the international portions of their business.

Total Workforce Technology

Technology is an important part of any talent acquisition or workforce management solution. Because of this, organizations should find a partner with a proven technology solution and experience building total workforce solutions. Organizations should also plan to evolve their total workforce programs as new technologies come into the marketplace.

Regardless of the specific technology solution, predictive analytics should be a part of any total workforce solution. Predictive analytics can be used in workforce planning to determine whether a certain role is best filled by a full-time employee or as a contract position. The technology can process data about time-to-fill, cost-to-fill, quality of hire and more to determine if the best talent for a role wants to work full-time or as a contingent worker and how to effectively reach those people.

Predictive analytics can also provide an early warning system to let organizations know if they may have issues finding a certain type of talent in a certain location. PeopleScout provides this information to one client that staffs contingent positions around the U.S. By using predictive analytics, PeopleScout is able to spot the early signs of contingent labor shortages in certain key markets and advise that organization to raise wages and add suppliers in strategic locations.

Finding a Total Workforce Solutions Partner

If you’re implementing a total workforce solution at your organization, it is important to work with someone who has experience in total workforce planning.


Additionally, it’s important to ensure your partner has experience with the types of roles and the challenges you’re facing. A total workforce solution will look vastly different for an organization with highly skilled employees and creative contract workers compared with an organization that employs web developers and staffs distribution centers with contingent workers. To be effective, you total workforce partner needs understand both your specific talent needs and the entire process of implementing a total workforce solution. To make sure they can accomplish what you’re looking for, it is also important to establish that they are market leaders, innovators and thought leaders. Because total talent is a growing trend, you want a partner who is innovating and leading in the industry.

Drivers and Benefits of Total Workforce Solutions

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Total workforce solutions are a growing trend for organizations grappling with the changing talent landscape. A total workforce solution provides a central view and way to manage all talent at an organization – both employees and contingent workers, including independent contractors, freelancers and statement of work (SOW) workers.

What is a Total Workforce Solution?

Under a total workforce solution, both talent acquisition and workforce management come together. The most complex issue when transitioning to a total workforce solution is determining where decisions will be made regarding full-time, part-time employees and contingent workers. In many organizations, those decisions have traditionally been made by different parts of the business.

Reconciling the decision-making and budgeting process to one central decision point with many inputs is essential in creating a successful, holistic talent program. A centralized decision-making process is also critical in ensuring that hiring managers receive guidance on determining the best way to fill a role – with either permanent or contingent workers.

Therefore, implementing a total workforce solution is a complicated and long-term project that needs to be continually evaluated. It’s best to think of total workforce as an evolution. In this blog post, we will cover the drivers for and benefits of total workforce and what to look for in a total workforce solutions partner.

Drivers of the Total Workforce Evolution

There are several factors driving the total workforce evolution. Currently, the growth of total workforce is primarily in the U.S. and Canada due to favorable labor laws and economic conditions. The following drivers combine to create a competitive environment, one where employers need to be able to attract and hire the best talent regardless of whether the worker is a permanent employee or a contingent worker.

Low unemployment

The U.S. has seen years of economic growth that has resulted in low unemployment. The unemployment rate has hovered near or below 4 percent for about a year which creates more competition for talent. Organizations need to find creative ways to attract and retain talent in this economic climate, including optimizing their balance of employees and contingent workers.

Generational shifts and the gig economy

Baby boomers, who were for years the largest generation in the workforce, are starting to retire. Now, millennials make up more than one-third of all workers. This divide and the shortage of experienced workers is especially visible in the healthcare industry.

The generational shift had another impact – the rise of the gig economy. As the number of millennials in the workforce ballooned, contingent work also grew in popularity. A Staffing Industry Analysts study estimates that about 44 million Americans, or about 29 percent of the U.S. workforce, has taken part in the gig economy. The study reports that many chose contingent work for greater flexibility or higher wages. Organizations need to adapt quickly to this generational shift and the growing popularity of this type of work to find and attract talent in a way that reflects the way that talent wants to work. Understanding the mix of full-time and contingent workers across different departments is a good place to start.

Evaluating your workforce mix will allow you to begin to plan for how to find and deploy top talent. It’s also critical to remember that as the workforce evolves, your strategy must evolve with it to stay competitive.

Talent shortages

Automation is changing the way we work. Currently, organizations are facing a shortage of candidates with the skills of the future. To overcome these challenges, organizations are implementing innovative solutions including reskilling. Employers are turning to total workforce solutions, so they can adapt more quickly to changes. In a total workforce solution, decision making is centralized and based on how to best secure the talent which enables increased agility and helps stakeholders see the benefit of making strategic decisions about how their workforce is procured.

A desire for greater insight to the total talent picture

Leaders are looking for a better view of the entire talent picture. By looking at permanent employees and contingent workers together, organizations can create a coherent strategy that takes into account the pressures of low unemployment, generational shifts and talent shortages and adapt more quickly.

Benefits of a Total Workforce Solution

Cost savings

A well-managed total workforce solution should drive increased cost savings compared to MSP and RPO programs operating separately. An integrated program simplifies the management, reporting and recruiting resources – reducing costs and increasing effectiveness. Through a TWS, organizations can find savings opportunities by making more strategic decisions about how to use their labor.

A full view of the entire workforce

A total workforce strategy provides companies with a broad view of the workforce, across different labor classifications and departments. That level of visibility allows organizations to gain consolidated intelligence into their workforces and helps them evolve in the competitive talent landscape. A total workforce solution provides enhanced metrics across the entire workforce—including time-to-fill, hiring manager satisfaction, candidate satisfaction, performance and cost metrics. This enables leaders to make informed, strategic business decisions, setting the organization up for success.

Centralized decision making

A total workforce solution centralizes decision making by ensuring the right mix of both permanent employees and contingent workers. A centralized decision-making process helps programs run more effectively by identifying whether a role should be temporary, permanent, short-term or long-term as soon as a need is identified.

Increased agility

A total workforce solution provides increased agility as organizations can see the trends impacting their workforce earlier and respond to them more quickly. A total workforce talent approach combines talent acquisition and workforce management, so strategic initiatives can be more easily implemented from the top down. Under a traditional, siloed approach, leaders have a more difficult time spotting these trends because they are only looking at a portion of the workforce. Additionally, strategic initiatives require more buy-in and more complex implementation because they involve two separate parts of the business. As technology accelerates the rate of change in the way we work, agility is an increasingly important trait for businesses.

A unified employer brand

When permanent and contingent labor are managed together, it is easier for organizations to portray a cohesive employer brand. Rather than representing one image of the organization to contingent workers and another to full-time employees, a total workforce solution enables HR to develop an employer branding strategy that speaks to all workers. Employer branding is an important tool for organizations to attract top talent.

Greater ability to recruit talent regardless of worker type

These benefits combine to provide organizations with a greater ability to recruit talent regardless of worker type. With the full view of talent, leaders can see how different types of talent want to work and then designate the position as permanent or contingent to meet those worker expectations. Then, the unified employer brand speaks to all workers in the same way, so candidates get the same positive impression whether they are applying for a full-time job, looking for a contract position or working through a temp agency. As organizations deal with the skill shortage and competitive talent landscape, the ability to recruit both employers and contingent workers effectively is necessary.

Total Workforce Solutions in Practice

A smooth transition from a segmented talent strategy to a total workforce solution comes down to the fundamentals of change management – planning, communication and implementation. Seamless program implementation ensures business continuity throughout the process, from formulating objectives for the overall program to transitioning it to the team who will manage the program on a daily basis. Once a program is in place, a purposeful governance strategy ensures the program can adapt, scale and respond to changes that impact talent and staffing needs.

Learn more about what total workforce solutions looks like in practice, including finding the right technology solution in our next blog post.

Globalizing Your Recruitment Strategies

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Global recruitment strategies are now more important than ever. As competition for talent increases, it is increasingly important for international organizations to create a recruiting strategic plan that is consistent across the globe. One factor driving this shift is falling unemployment around the world. The U.S., China, Japan, Britain and Canada all have unemployment rates at or below 6 percent—with the U.S., China and Japan at or below 4 percent. This makes it difficult to find and attract top talent in these economies.

Leaders are concerned about the growing competition for talent. According to PwC’s 21st CEO Survey, which collects data from leaders around the world, 80 percent of CEOs say they’re worried about finding talent with necessary skills. Additionally, 54 percent say they plan to increase the headcount at their organization over the next year and 57 percent believe global growth will improve over the next year.

To support growth and remain competitive in sourcing and recruiting the best workers, organizations need to build a comprehensive global recruitment strategy. An overarching global recruitment strategy covers recruitment marketing and employer branding, candidate experience and onboarding around the world.

In this blog post, we will cover the benefits of a global recruitment strategy and the building blocks employers need to be successful.

Benefits of a Global Recruitment Strategy

Improved quality of hire

An effective global sourcing strategy enables employers to make a better cultural match and increases the potential of finding the right candidate with the right skills.

Increased diversity and greater cultural literacy

Employers are able to speak to and attract candidates regardless of country through a consistent global recruitment strategy. If the recruitment process is optimized for one country or weaker in different parts of the world, an employer will see the overrepresentation of some candidates and underrepresentation of others. By deploying a truly global process, employers will be able to attract and hire a more diverse slate of candidates. Increased diversity has a host of benefits including improved productivity and higher levels of employee engagement. Diverse employees also bring an increase in cultural literacy to an organization.

A recruiting strategic plan to better source candidates with skills of the future

A global recruitment strategy can help employers source candidates with the skills of the future. Automation is changing the way we work, and different areas of the globe are adapting at different paces. According to PwC, 94 percent of CEOs in China are worried about finding candidates with the right skills compared to just 51 percent in Canada. With a global recruitment strategy, HR professionals can adapt candidate personas from around the world to ensure they are sourcing talent with the necessary skills and identifying new ways to target candidates who fit these personas.

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Creating a Recruiting Strategic Plan: The Components of a Global Recruitment Strategy

Employer brand

The first step of implementing a global recruitment strategy is building an employment brand that is truly global. Many employers, especially those in the B2B space, don’t have a strong consumer brand. Without a strong consumer brand, most organizations need to rely on their employer brand to attract talent. There are many ways for an organization to build its employer brand, including developing employee ambassadors, using social media and digitizing brand strategy while putting mobile first.

global recruitment

When implementing a global recruitment strategy, organizations need to build an employer brand that is effective across the world. It is important to work with local employees to ensure employer branding and recruitment marketing campaigns are culturally appropriate in each region in which an employer recruits.

To accomplish this effectively, HR should work with marketing, so the strategy is aligned with and deployed alongside traditional marketing messages.

Candidate experience

A strong end-to-end candidate experience is important regardless of where candidates are from. Candidates around the world want mobile-friendly applications that are fast and easy to fill out, well-written job descriptions that engage candidates and convince them to apply, positive interview experiences and consistent communication.

Employee referral program

The process should also include a strong employee referral program for each country as employee referrals account for nearly a third of all hires, according to SHRM. It is important to ensure an equivalent referral bonus in each country. The amount should be based on a percentage of the average income in each location. If referral bonuses are too varied in different countries, it can make employees in one location feel less valued.

Consistent onboarding process

The onboarding process should also be as consistent as possible in each location. According to SHRM, 69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding. While some countries have exceptions, like requiring a new hire to come into the office for a signature before the start date, but otherwise the process should be as consistent as possible. At PeopleScout, we standardize, document and create global job contract repositories to make our clients’ onboarding processes more efficient and compliant.

Standardized technology

When building a global recruitment strategy, it is important to standardize technology as much as possible across the globe. While there are exceptions, like Russia where, by law, you need to have an ATS on the ground in the country, you should use the same technology systems wherever possible.

A centralized technology system for all global locations gives you better data and a better view of your entire workforce. This gives you the ability to better spot trends and make strategic decisions.

Global labor market data analysis

If the talent market starts to tighten in one part of the world, you can easily see how your workforce compares throughout the region and other areas of the world. That insight can be used to make high-level business decisions. For example, a PeopleScout client was looking to hire Norwegian speakers in a central European country. After analyzing the market data, PeopleScout provided recommendations for better locations outside of Norway where the client could find more candidates who met their requirements.

Finding a Global RPO Partner

Recruiting Strategic Plan

A global RPO provider can be a valuable partner in developing a global recruitment strategy because you benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience they gain through working in different industries around the world. As you look for a partner, it’s important to ensure that they have experience in the parts of the world where you’re looking to hire candidates.

Your partner should help you navigate the compliance and cultural issues that accompany any global sourcing program. While some local labor laws deal with issues that happen after the hiring process, remember that they can have implications during the hiring process too. An RPO provider can help prepare you for many of the challenges before you post a job or extend an offer. Additionally, a partner with years of experience can help you anticipate any communication and training issues so that you can tackle the issues head-on.

If you are considering building a global recruitment strategy, read more about our global RPO solutions.

Leveraging Offshore Delivery Centers to Drive Improved Compliance and Recruitment Results

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Offshore delivery centers are a growing tool in talent acquisition. Historically, these centers have been leveraged for the cost efficiencies they brought to business process outsourcing programs. More recently, Offshore delivery centers are being used to strengthen compliance, drive broader operational efficiencies and improve recruitment performance. The change is driven by an increasingly globalized workforce, a competitive recruiting landscape and increased risk due to a complicated patchwork of compliance regulations.

Positive economic growth in the U.S. and around the world is making it more difficult to find and attract the talent necessary to stay ahead in the global economy. A skills shortage brought on by automation is making the process even more difficult. Low unemployment rates mean candidates have a lot of choices, so employers need to meet candidate expectations during the recruitment process to hire top talent.

However, the compliance landscape is becoming more complicated. The patchwork of compliance laws across the U.S. is complicated and constantly changing. That, combined with increased employment class-action litigation, leaves employers facing extraordinary risk. This means employers not only have to provide a strong candidate experience, but they also have to account for the variety of regulations that apply.

To overcome these obstacles, employers and RPO providers are engaging offshore delivery centers to manage parts of the recruitment process. These delivery centers are effective because combined with an innovate technology solution, they can drive efficiencies and ensure compliance through strict adherence to workflows. In this blog post, we will cover the benefits of offshore delivery models in dealing with policy and regulatory compliance issues, how these models fit with a technology solution and how to find an RPO partner with global delivery expertise.

Supporting Policy and Regulatory Compliance

There are three major benefits to an offshore delivery center: cost, operational efficiency and ensure compliance. In addition to cost-savings realized through a global delivery center, technology, workflow and audit operations can be orchestrated to drive operational efficiency, as well as compliance with corporate and regulatory guidelines. Below are a few ways in which global delivery centers can improve the hiring process.

Background Screening and Drug Testing

Standardized corporate policies requiring completed background investigations and drug tests have been the norm across large employers in the U.S. However, the proliferation of different state and local laws regarding the use of criminal background investigations in the hiring process and the variations in the legal treatment of the use of marijuana in different jurisdictions have injected significant complexity into hiring practices. Employers faced with the need for different drug testing criteria and background investigation procedures can encode and apply variegated workflows for different jurisdictions, without a significant increase in compliance cost or risk, when these are initiated, executed and audited at an offshore delivery center.

Properly Written Job Requisitions

An offshore delivery center can be used to ensure that every job requisition is complete and compliant. Hiring manager or recruiter errors frequently undermine the effectiveness, policy adherence and regulatory compliance of job descriptions. A common approach to this issue has been to force the posting of only static, unchangeable job descriptions that are pre-approved. Times have changed, and it is more important than ever to allow hiring managers to highlight differentiators and add information that will attract the best from a very limited candidate pool. A compliance review of every job description prior to posting or distributing a job description is an essential step in ensuring compliance with OFCCP and other regulatory criteria fixed elements like accurate compensation ranges, and ensuring a minimum acceptable quality level.

Building Global Compliance Teams

As many organizations turn to a global sourcing and recruitment model, an offshore delivery center can be used to quickly and easily set up compliance standard operation procedures for each country in which an organization operates. Because each team is only focused on one set of regulations and they follow a set procedure, the teams can avoid the confusion that arises from dealing with a variety of regulations in different countries. This system can ensure compliance for companies with a large global presence.

Increased Diversity and Decreased Bias

Offshore delivery centers can also be used to increase diversity and decrease bias throughout the recruitment process. For one organization that takes advantage of PeopleScout’s offshore delivery center in Gurgaon, candidates first take an online assessment and are then screened by staff at the center against criteria specified in the job descriptions and subsequently slated for recruiter and hiring manager review. This process reduces the possibility of bias, and translates to a more diverse slate of qualified candidates and reduced risk of discrimination.

Supporting Improved Recruitment Results

In addition to helping create a compliant recruitment program, offshore delivery centers can also improve recruitment results and candidates experience.

Posting to Community and Diversity Job Boards

Most well-known job boards take XML feeds, which allows distribution to be automated. However, job boards like those run by community churches or local unions sometimes still require someone to reach out personally. When an employer has a large volume of open positions, posting to these types of boards can take a lot of recruiter time and the process becomes prohibitively expensive. When an offshore delivery center handles this type of posting, organizations don’t leave these candidates on the table. Additionally, these job boards are also often a source of diverse candidates, which improves diversity hiring.

Timeliness

To keep up with candidate expectations, employers need a fast recruitment process. An offshore delivery center can speed up the process of candidate engagement through procedures designed to accelerate the strongest candidates through to interviews and offers. For one client that takes advantage of PeopleScout’s global delivery center in Gurgaon, India, PeopleScout has met 100 percent of all timeliness metrics for the past three years for tens of thousands of annual hires by engaging with candidates 24 hours a day.

Building a Diverse and High Performing Workforce

In addition to the tangible benefits during the recruitment process, an offshore delivery center also provides the benefits of a diverse and global workforce, including creative new ideas and perspectives and higher productivity. At PeopleScout, employees in our offshore delivery centers in India have provided unique insights and ideas, assisting teams in the U.S. and Canada. In one instance, a recruiter with an educational background in quantitative sciences was able to provide insights that led to the deployment of a local work allocation system that significantly reduced the time it takes us to screen new applicants.

In specialized fields of endeavor, recruiters with specific knowledge and educational expertise are better equipped to screen and select candidates. While it would be prohibitive and less likely to engage engineers, programmers, chemists and other professionals as recruiters in the U.S. and most of Europe, offshore delivery centers have allowed forward-thinking RPO firms to build recruiting teams with these skilled professionals.

Technology and the Offshore Delivery Model

Finding the Right Balance

Innovative technology, including AI, is an important part of any recruiting program. A typical talent acquisition technology stack now includes an ATS, an integrated CRM platform and a myriad of other tools. We have never been better positioned to use analytics to help us make decisions and drive better recruiting outcomes. Striking a balance is important to ensure that we arrive at outcomes that are aligned to organizational goals and are within regulatory guardrails. For instance, using a technology-enabled first-pass to screen requisitions can ensure that a job description is accurate across objective features. That can be followed by a human second-pass screen to review flagged areas and screen more subjective areas of the job description like ensuring that the basic qualifications for the job description are defensible from a compliance standpoint. Another example concerns the use of artificial intelligence-enabled systems to source candidates. All such systems run the inherent risk of allowing biases inherent in prior hiring decisions to perpetuate and amplify across future recruiting efforts. Allowing for a recruiter-led review of systems generated results ensures that all good candidates are appropriately considered. Global delivery centers allow for efficient ways to address the required balance between systems and human interactions across the recruiting life-cycle.

Stepping up Where AI Falls Short

Offshore delivery centers can also take on tasks that AI and automation aren’t able to do yet. For instance, when a new law goes into effect that impacts the recruiting process in a certain region, a new standard operating procedure can be established and deployed in an offshore delivery center within hours. Making that change across a complex technology stack would involve multiple rounds of programming and testing, which would take more time and amplify the risk of compliance issues until deployment.

Finding a Partner

An RPO provider is a valuable partner for organizations looking to take advantage of the benefits of an offshore delivery center. RPOs have expertise in managing clients across the spectrum of compliance needs, so they can quickly implement a customized plan. That experience also means that RPO providers can pivot quickly to address any change in the compliance landscape, developing a standard operating procedure and applying it to any client who may be impacted.

As you’re looking for an RPO partner with offshore delivery capabilities, be sure to assess their ability to address cost, operations, and compliance efficiencies across the entire talent acquisition model.